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Friday, July 26, 2013

Another First Time Mom

After spending five glorious days in the hospital after having Alexa (yes, in Austria that is possible!), we left the bubble of security, we left 24 hour nurses, doctors and midwives, prepared and cleaned up meals and laundry that magically did itself and ventured home...a new family, a mommy, a daddy and a baby. It was exciting, thrilling and mostly it was terrifying. No one can prepare you to take your little bundle of joy home. No one tells you that every fear you never knew existed would topple over on you one by one the closer you got to the hospital doors. No one tells you that the world outside is a predator and your sole purpose in life now is to protect your little bundle from those threats, from all of those threats.

I left in comfy maternity leggings and whatever shirt fit over my ginormously engorged boobs (I think it was red). We had Alexa bundled in her little rockin' polar bear outfit, added blankets to the car seat to keep her warm, and then added a burp cloth over the car seat to keep her safe, to keep her unseen and away from people...from the world. Michael carried the baby and I stayed right next to them, to my family, my world.

I thought about that day leaving the hospital when I saw all the news articles and Facebook posts about the royal baby. About Kate in her fancy dress and high heels. HIGH HEELS??? Are you freaking kidding me? Regardless as to whether she had a natural birth or a c-section, you do not wear high heels leaving the hospital! I actually think that might have been the most painful moment of her life, not the birth itself! Seeing the hundreds of news posts declaring the arrival of the royal baby and the "first picture" made me feel so thankful. Thankful that I was able to bring my child home without the world watching, without making every single one of those paranoid fears come true. I was able to protect and hide my little bundle under a burp cloth. Until I had a child of my own, I never even considered what motherhood, or parenthood for that matter, of a celebrity, an athlete, of any famous person or political figurehead, or a member of the royal family might be like. I have always thought the paparazzi were annoying, little flies...everywhere and nowhere all at the same time catching every moment that the world really doesn't need to see. It makes me extra thankful that the only paparazzi I know is Oparazzi, my father-in-law with his digital
camera, taking pictures while my mouth is full of food or while I'm in the middle of a sentence. I am thankful for my little world, my little family and the privacy that we have to walk around in sweatpants in the middle of the day, run to the grocery store with crazy bed head or hang out with baby spit up all over my shirt and not care at all.

So, I tip my hat to you Kate...congratulations on your new little bundle of joy and may your feet be comfortably resting in some snuggly slippers! Now, go put on your sweatpants.